Unsafe haven

Delhi is the most unsafe city in India and the new, exhibitionist affluent society is pushing crime across the class spectrum

Garima Srivastava Delhi

It is 7:15 in the evening and there is a sign of worry on the face of Dr Sarita Aggrawal in south Delhi. While looking at the reports of her patient, she suddenly takes out her mobile. With a faltering voice, she asks, "When are you coming, it's already late." After listening, she says, "How will you come? Will you get an auto now?" Looking at the patient with a smile, she says, "My daughter. She has not yet reached home. You know how unsafe the city is. You never know when something can go wrong."
This is a common cause of concern for people living in the mega cities of India, especially in Delhi. The big cities are terribly unsafe. Anything can happen to anybody. Even the cocooned affluent society living in posh and highly protected spaces, with their own private security, is not safe.
Clearly, the content and nature of crime has changed drastically in the past few years. Recently, in Gurgaon recently, youngsters running a 'taxi service' on National Highway 24 enacted a serial murder scenario - literally killing more than 20 travellers for a kick or quick money, often for butter chicken and beer, while the cops had no clue.
Says Mukund Kaushik, Special Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, "Today's youth is aggressive. Especially in the mega cities. They are loosing patience and no one is concerned about others. Even if someone sees a boy teasing their neighbour's daughter, they will not come forward. This new society is full of glamour and glitter and youngsters fall for it. To fulfil these aspirations, they need money. And committing crimes to get money can be an easy way out." This suggests that a huge number of youngsters and first-time criminals are getting more and more involved in criminal cases. A report published by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), Crime in India, also backs the statement: 44.6 per cent of those arrested belonged to 18- 30 year age group.
The character and execution of crime is changing rapidly in India. Old sociological stereotypes of evil, leering eyes and an unshaved face with characteristic clothes no longer work. It's also not a monopoly of a particular class only.
What is of even greater cause of concern is that a number of children and teenagers are also turning to crime. Two 14-year-old boys, Akash Yadav and Vikas Yadav, from Gurgaon, hit the headlines when the two boys shot down one of their classmates, who apparently used to bully them. Akash had smuggled his father's revolver and took it to school. Kaushik expresses his point of view as he says, "For such cases parents are at fault, as they do not know how to keep a gun away from their children. I think the atmosphere in their houses must be very aggressive with people actually talking about shooting or killing. They learn it from their parents, and not being able to distinguish between good and bad, they commit such crimes."
Women are also forming criminal gangs, till now considered a male bastion.
Many women criminals start their 'crime history' in gangs led by men. As their most trusted lieutenants, they often take over the mantle after the gang leader is either killed or arrested. Recently, the crime branch busted a gang of snatchers who called themselves the 'Santro gang', led by Ekta Munshani, a 24-year-old call-centre worker with a foreign airline earning a monthly salary of Rs 25,000. She chose that life because she wanted to get married to her boyfriend, for which she required money.
Incidents of women criminals giving the police sleepless nights are many. Delhi's east district police took months before they could nail Geeta Arora (32), an alleged pimp working for dreaded criminal Hemant Sonu, on August 30, 2007. During interrogation, she revealed that she had been associated with a number of criminals and actively supported their activities. After her arrest the police said, "She was fascinated by criminals. She has been associated with them for the last 12 years. Her first boyfriend from the underworld was Vijay Singh, an extortionist from UP who belonged to the Sriprakash Shukla gang. He was killed by the Special Task Force of UP police in an encounter."
Besides, the NCRB report mentions that the number of crimes against senior citizens has increased in the past few years. Explains Kaushik, "These kinds of crime are on rise because sons and daughters go abroad, leaving their parents behind. These who live in bungalows in posh areas depend on their live-in domestic help for their household work, for whom they are an easy target. The problem is that people normally don't ask for details of their servants before hiring them, which is necessary when they are living alone."
Along with senior citizens, another easy prey for crime in Indian mega cities are women. The NCRB report states that the proportion of crimes committed against women have increased in the last five years from 7.4 per cent in 2002 to 8.2 per cent during 2006. The highest number of victims are girls between 13-18 years. The ratio of abduction cases of girls between this age group is far higher than any other age group. Indeed, it is rare to find girls in that age group on the streets or traffic lights selling books, newspapers or flowers.
The NCRB report gives a grim picture of crime against women in Delhi. Of the total number of Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes reported from 35 megacities, 16.2 per cent were from Delhi. According to the Delhi Police, out of the total rape cases, 11 per cent of the accused are relatives of the victim, which may include the father or brother. Recently, a man was acquitted for raping his four-and-a-half year old daughter in Delhi and even the mother of the girl did not come forward in support of her daughter. Few years ago, in a village near Patna, a pregnant girl accused her brother of raping her for almost a year, and forcing her to keep her mouth shut. More shockingly, her mother told her not to open her mouth in public, as it would give a bad name to their family and her brother.
Crimes of passion are also widespread. The NCRB report says that nine out of every 33 culpable homicide cases in UP is due to a 'love affair'. Often, an estranged lover throws acid on the face of a girl. Says Kaushik, "Youngsters have become impatient and they want everything. In such a condition, they are to face rejection, hence they commit such crimes."
Among other crimes, theft, burglary and cheating are a major cause of concern for the police as they consist of 14.6, 4.9 and 3.1 per cent of total IPC crime in India respectively. Property-related crime is on the rise in Delhi, while money-related fraud and cheating students in the name of fake degrees are common trends throughout the country. The desire to earn quick money has led to a high number of cheating and fraud cases. The victims belong to lower middle-class families and the fraudsters lure them with promises of huge returns on their investment. Most of the victims are left in total financial ruin. Recently, in an extortion case, a 28-year-old man was nabbed from Delhi's north district as he was trying to extort money from a chemist. According to the police, the man was working with a web portal as a 'writer'.
Another easy way of earning quick and big money is smuggling of narcotics. During 2007, 185.293kg of charas, 94.250kg of opium, 2973.838 kg of ganja, 99.117kg of smack/heroin and 144 kg of poppy heads were recovered from Delhi, according to Delhi Police. The reason for Delhi being a major hub of narcotics trade is its geographical location - it is close to the country's western borders and Nepal, and also close to the opium growing areas of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and UP.
No talk of crime in mega cities can be complete without the underworld in Mumbai, the film capital of India. Bollywood and the underworld have had a long, troubled and seductive relationship. From films like Deewar, where Amitabh Bachchan's character Vijay was apparently styled after 1970s Mumbai don Haji Mastan, to Company which is said be based on the lives of Dawood Ibrahim and Abu Salem. On August 12, 1997, the murder of music magnate Gulshan Kumar shook the entire film industry and made Abu Salem, who was behind the killing, a dreaded name.
When initially dons started investing in films, they saw it as an avenue where black money can be invested. Returns were fast and handsome. Some filmmakers opted to take money from the bhais as the money came thick and fast without any paperwork.
Sanjay Baniwal, Deputy Director, Research and Development, Bureau of Police Research, differentiates between the natures of crime in northern India with that of southern India. He says, "People in the southern part of India are passionate about things they like. For instance, film stars are worshipped as deities. People from the southern parts commit more suicides than those in the north. People from Pondicherry, Daman & Diu, Lakshadweep and Andaman also commit more suicides."
Explains Burton Cleetus, Fellow at the Institut Français de Pondichéry: "Our cities did not evolve, unlike the Europeans ones, they erupted from small towns to bigger cities giving less scope for crisis negotiation. As people increased there was an urgent need for urban infrastructures for domestic and social consumption leading to increased competition for more resources-making cities and small towns vulnerable to crime. Everywhere you have to negotiate against scarce resources, and unfavourable living conditions. The urban life is subjected to constant change. There is less time for settling down making urban life more stressful than ever before."
He argues, "The grid of urban India changed radically in the post-1990s, people flocked to the cities to explore more opportunities. The arrival of new avenues in IT has added to the woes of urban life. Economic affluence has led the emerging middle class to generate an ideology of blatant competition of resource consumption. You consume more than what is actually needed for sustenance and you always desire for the best, and this leads to individual conflicts and crisis. Earlier people used to settle disputes through negotiation, based largely on interpersonal relations, rather than resorting to crime. When your wealth increases you tend to resort to violence to settle disputes. Besides, the loss of interpersonal relations and trust has forced the affluent to experiment with relations outside marriage, thereby complicating family relations and leading to breakdowns."
Truly, the new, exhibitionist affluent society in this era of globalisation, where millionaires and billionaires are glorified openly, where money, glamour and glitz of the consumer society is the 'in-thing', is creating its own set of contradictions. Stark inequalities and massive disparities in wealth and lifestyle is creating massive realms of social conflicts and individual frustrations. From women being objectified as sex objects, to youngsters wanting quick fixes, to killing and raping for pure fun, this is a new phenomenon of greed and perversion. Crime is just a coincidence in this larger sociological complexity. It mirrors the Indian urban society, as Indian urban society looks at its own image, among titillating hoardings and advertisements. Murder and rape, in that sense, as Edgar Allen Poe would write, is as natural as sunlight.